|
Hospital Consultancy And Management : Apollo Hospitals Spreading Wings
Corporate healthcare major Apollo Hospital is steadily spreading its wings across projects management.
The focus is on project consultancy and management of a hospital, promoted by other parties. Apollo Hospitals plays the lead role right from the concept to commissioning stage. In most cases, these hospitals also carry the Apollo brandname.
At present, Apollo has about 13 owned hospitals and 22 projects under its wing. About 30 more managed projects are under construction. In addition, the group is in the process of inking over half a dozen projects. Apollo is in talks with promoters in Nigeria, Mauritius and Malaysia. In fact, the Petronas group is promoting a 300-bed hospital in Kuala Lumpur. Two hospitals in Dhaka and Ghana will be commissioned soon under the Apollo co-banner.
Similarly, the group is expected to clinch a project management contracts for two speciality hospitals back home. Apollo sources said these hospitals will come up in Lucknow (promoted by the Sahara Group) and Ludhiana. Apollo is also actively looking at facilities owned by corporates who are in the process of hiving off their non-core activities. Apollo is being approached by Tisco, Coal India, SAIL, Tata Tea and South Eastern Coalfields for managing their facilities.
Quite obviously, projects management is turning out to be a blue-chip activity for the group. It helps the group to spread its hospital management practices and brandname, healthcare industry observers say. It also gives the healthcare major a better way to spread its resources optimally on owned projects, they add. Projects management and consultancy, at present, clocks an income of about Rs 10 crore for the group. But, the division looks at higher earnings from these operations both with new ventures as well as current projects which are gathering steam. Consultancy essentially means that the Apollo group is involved with the project right from the word go. It is involved with market research, technical design, arranging finance, hiring manpower, operations and management of the facility.
The group charges a turnover based fee which is roughly 5-6% and also a royalty amount for the brandname usage. Apollo deputes a hospital administrator in each of its projects to maintain quality and standards.
[Ref: Economic Times, 23/04/2003]
Medical Disposables : Hindustan Syringes To Hike Capacity
HINDUSTAN Syringes & Medical Devices (HMD) Limited, a Delhi based medical disposable company, is making an investment of Rs 100 crore over a period of two years to augment its manufacturing capacities.
The company manufactures a wide range of medical disposables including syringes, needles and blades. The existing manufacturing capacity of the company is 1.75 billion disposables per annum, which is now being raised to two billion per annum.
"In our capacity expansion programme, we have decided to focus on auto-disable syringes," Mr Pardeep Sareen, general manager, HMD
The company has recently marketed auto-disable (AD) syringes under the brand name of 'Kojak Selinge'. AD syringes cannot be reused and any attempt to reuse the syringe leads to breaking of the plunger.
Enthused by the initial response, the company is planning to manufacturer 2 Lakh pieces of AD syringes and the company has tied up with UK based Star Syringe for its technical collaboration, Mr Sareen added.
The company is targeting a 30% growth to become a Rs 225 crore company by the end of the year 2004. "Of our total turnover, we expect 15 per cent turnover, from our AD syringe segment" Mr Sareen Said
According to Mr Sareen, the company is exporting its products in US and Europe and its export turnover is 15% of the total turnover of the company. The company is also planning to increase exports to 25% of the company's turnover by the year 2003.
As part of its export strategy, the company has set up a wholly owned subsidiary, HMD Healthcare, in UK and is also working on establishing a distribution chain to sell its branded products across US and Western Europe.
[Ref: Economic Times, 17/04/2003]
Pharmaceuticals And Drugs: India At No. 2 In Global Rankings
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) India Report 2002 has ranked computer software (services), telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and drugs, automotive and transport equipment and internet-related activity as the most entrepreneurial sectors of the economy. All these sectors, it notes, belong to the, "new and growing high-tech areas."
"The overall picture presented by the ranking of the sectors is that entrepreneurship in India would be quite active in the years to come, in spite of the several problems with the frame work conditions," it says.
The GEM-India Report 2002 notes that the economy is going through a vibrant phase, with an exceptionally high rate (17.9%) of entrepreneurial activity, second only to Thailand (18.9%), among 37 countries that participated in the GEM Project 2002.
This includes countries like Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, the US and the UK, among others. The '02 figure of Total Entrepreneurial Activity for India at 17.9%, is 6.3% higher than the 11.6% recorded in '01, implying an over 50% growth in the level of entrepreneurial activity over the past one year. This growth rate outpaces the global average as reported by GEM, which shows a fall of 25% between '01 and '02
[Ref: Economic Times, 02/04/03] |
